friend of Fields, says, "I took him to task privately afterward. I thought he was a litde rough on Barbara." Fields explains, "You have to draw a distinction between what I will say to the press and what I would say in court. When I'm talking to the press, I may be much more dra- matic." A court, on the other hand, "is a temple." (The two sides settled out of court. ) Fields is known for sending letters hinting at legal action if the recipient does not alter course. When he learned that the New York Post's Page Six was preparing an item on Spielberg and Tom Cruise, he wrote to the editor: We have received word that you are plan- ning a report that Steven Spielberg was upset with Tom about Tom's speaking out about his views on children's use of drugs . . . and that now they are not speaking to each other. . . . Each of these statements is abso- lutely and demonstrably false. Steven is not upset with Tom. . . . Tom and Steven remain close friends and are looking forward to working together again. Nevertheless, Page Six reported that Spielberg was furious with Cruise be- cause, during a promotion tour for their movie 'War of the Worlds," Cruise had been "ranting" against "the widespread use of Ritalin to treat unruly children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Dis- order." Spielberg was reportedly upset because he knew children for whom "Ritalin does a lot of good," and be- cause Cruise, who is a Scien tologist, "played up Scientology more than the movie during press interviews." According to two close friends of Spielberg's, Page Six was accurate, al- though the item did not note the real source of Spielberg's anger: after he mentioned to Cruise the name of a doc- tor-a friend-who prescribed Ritalin, the doctor's office was picketed by Scientologists. When I asked Fields if Cruise had revealed the name of Spiel- berg's friend to Scientologists, he said only, "I wouldn't have said what I said without checking with Tom. I don't know that I talked to Steven, who I've d " represente . In a courtroom, Fields never raises his voice. "A jury doesn't want some guy shouting at them," he says. "Even when you think the other side is a scumbag- it doesn't win you points." He has some- times listened to John Philip Sousa marches before heading to court. "They get me fired up," he once told his friend Mel Brooks. Fields's courtroom tactics were ap- parent in 1999 in the case he brought against the Walt Disney Company on behalf of Jeffrey Katzenberg. In 1994, Katzenberg was forced out as chairman of Disney's movie division, and he later sued Disney for more than two hundred and fifty million dollars in bonuses that he said were due under his contract. Dis- ney did not dispute that Katzenberg was owed something-he had already re- ceived severance payments totalling a hundred and seventeen million dollars- but Fields argued that Disney's chair- man, Michael Eisner, had arrived at the lower figure solely because of personal animus toward Katzenberg. Fields and Eisner had been on op- posing sides in court more than once and obviously were not fond of one another. At one point, Eisner had let it be known that Disney would not do business with anyone who retained Fields (the edict was soon rescinded). Fields had publicly boasted that he had represented every studio but Disney; when, in 1998, Eis- ner hired a new counsel, Fields wrote to Eisner, "I want to congratulate you on the selection of Lou Meisinger as your new General Counsel. Lou is a man of extraordinary skill, intelligence, and judgment. Every once in a while you do something right." At the Katzenberg trial, with Eisner on the witness stand, Fields bore in, re- ..r ferring to conversations between Eisner and the co-author of his 1998 autobiog- raphy, Tony Schwartz: Q: Did you tell Mr. Schwartz that you hated Mr. I(atzenberg? A: In one conversation when he pushed me on a series of things that Mr. I(atzenberg had done, 1 did-I did say that. Q: You said, "I think 1 hate the little midget" ? A: 1 think you're getting into an area that-that-I just want to say that is ill- advised . . . and if you pursue this line of questioning, it will put in the public record those things that 1 think are not necessary to be in the public record. Q: And did you say to Mr. Schwartz, "I don't care what he thinks, 1 am not going to pay him any of the money"? A: 1 would say again, in anger 1 said that. Soon after Eisner's testimony, the company agreed to pay Katzenberg more than two hundred and fifty million dol- lars-at the time, according to Variety, "more than triple the amount ever given to an individuar' in a Hollywood lawsuit. Katzenberg recounted for me how Fields prepared him for cross-examination: "Hè d say to me, 'A great wordsmith, a great interrogator, a really great litigator, can get a witness to say what he wants him to say.' He would do an exercise with me in which he would tell me that he was going to get me to admit to jay- walking yesterday-something I hadn't done. He then proceeded to get me to admit it was at least possible I might have done it. He managed to get Michael Eisner to threaten him from the stand." Although Fields encourages the im- -yo A re ou k,'ds j st ol'nj to drift 0\(( Summer) or do ou th;nk OV( ýn'I "t C\ ctu qtl stl. fì somethin ? , /' - (C .- . __- -- ,: ( ---- '-i f;' (> '/ fl J rff / _______- ) .Uf/' /(r/ r. ______ - I / II j I I ( -- rl I r _ - --- ----- ------ """ _ Sh nPlhØf{j I PORTUGUESE MOM OF WAR